The Honeycomb Conjecture in normed planes and an alpha-convex variant of a theorem of Dowker

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Main Authors: Lángi, Zsolt, Wang, Shanshan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Lángi, Zsolt
Wang, Shanshan
author_facet Lángi, Zsolt
Wang, Shanshan
contents The Honeycomb Conjecture states that among tilings with unit area cells in the Euclidean plane, the average perimeter of a cell is minimal for a regular hexagonal tiling. This conjecture was proved by L. Fejes Tóth for convex tilings, and by Hales for not necessarily convex tilings. In this paper we investigate the same question for tilings of a given normed plane, and show that among normal, convex tilings in a normed plane, the average squared perimeter of a cell is minimal for a tiling whose cells are translates of a centrally symmetric hexagon. We also show that the question whether the same statement is true for the average perimeter of a cell is closely related to an $α$-convex variant of a theorem of Dowker on the area of polygons circumscribed about a convex disk. Exploring this connection we find families of norms in which the average perimeter of a cell of a tiling is minimal for a hexagonal tiling, and prove some additonal related results. Finally, we apply our method to give a partial answer to a problem of Steinhaus about the isoperimetric ratios of cells of certain tilings in the Euclidean plane, appeared in an open problem book of Croft, Falconer and Guy.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_10622
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Honeycomb Conjecture in normed planes and an alpha-convex variant of a theorem of Dowker
Lángi, Zsolt
Wang, Shanshan
Metric Geometry
Combinatorics
The Honeycomb Conjecture states that among tilings with unit area cells in the Euclidean plane, the average perimeter of a cell is minimal for a regular hexagonal tiling. This conjecture was proved by L. Fejes Tóth for convex tilings, and by Hales for not necessarily convex tilings. In this paper we investigate the same question for tilings of a given normed plane, and show that among normal, convex tilings in a normed plane, the average squared perimeter of a cell is minimal for a tiling whose cells are translates of a centrally symmetric hexagon. We also show that the question whether the same statement is true for the average perimeter of a cell is closely related to an $α$-convex variant of a theorem of Dowker on the area of polygons circumscribed about a convex disk. Exploring this connection we find families of norms in which the average perimeter of a cell of a tiling is minimal for a hexagonal tiling, and prove some additonal related results. Finally, we apply our method to give a partial answer to a problem of Steinhaus about the isoperimetric ratios of cells of certain tilings in the Euclidean plane, appeared in an open problem book of Croft, Falconer and Guy.
title The Honeycomb Conjecture in normed planes and an alpha-convex variant of a theorem of Dowker
topic Metric Geometry
Combinatorics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.10622